Ancient Warfare Magazine

Ancient Warfare is a unique publication focused exclusively on soldiers, battles, and tactics, all before 600 AD. Starting with ancient Egypt and Persia and continuing to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Ancient Warfare examines the military history of cultures throughout Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia and Africa. Ancient Greece and Rome receive the most frequent coverage, due both to the wealth of contemporary sources and the modern fascination with these two great civilizations. Subject-matter ranges from the familiar to the more obscure: while Alexander the Great, the Persian Wars and Caesar’s Gallic campaigns all receive regular coverage, Ancient Warfare also looks at some of the less common parts of ancient military history, from chariots as battle taxis to PTSD in antiquity.

Ancient Warfare Magazine

PRELIMINARIES NEWS ITEMS BY LINDSAY POWELL

Oldest helmet ever found in Poland discovered

New-Kingdom-era military base found in Egypt

New Roman warship ram recovered

Urartian shields and helmet uncovered

Roman legionary fort discovered in the Swiss Alps

New clues about combatants in Tollense battle

HAVE YOU READ?

Minoan dagger found in Bronze Age shipwreck

ASSYRIAN-STYLE EXPANSION BEFORE ME, CITIES, BEHIND ME, RUINS • For 250 years the vast expanses of the Middle East became the terrain of Assyrian expansion, creating the first empire in history. An efficient administration in the conquered provinces and a professional army, always ready to intervene, ensured their superiority over any potential opponent. To this day, the Assyrians also enjoy a dubious reputation as unrivalled in cruelty. But is that deserved?

The Tiger unleashed: Tiglath-Pileser III

The Ghost of Sargon II

The last gasp

THE TOMBSTONE OF CAIUS MARIUS DEATH OF A CITIZEN CAVALRYMAN • Most of the cavalrymen who served in the Roman army did so in the auxilia, as non-citizen recruits from provincial and allied territories with pre-existing expertise in horsemanship. But a small number of horsemen in the legions were citizens, such as Caius Marius, a cavalry soldier of Legio I, whose tombstone was found in Bonn.

A HISTORY OF LEGIO X FRETENSIS GUARDIANS OF THE STRAIT • A legion originally founded to protect the toe of Italy went on to have a distinguished career over the next four-and-a-half centuries. From Calabria to Armenia, its men saw glory in some of the Roman army’s most significant military engagements.

Fretensis in Georgia

THE CAREERS OF LEGIO X FRETENSIS SOLDIERS TOURS OF DUTY • Ambitious men looking for progress in Roman civil society would undertake positions of increasing responsibility in the army. For others it was a career choice. Inscriptions reveal the many and varied stories of individuals who served with Legio X Fretensis before moving on to other political or military assignments.

The hopeful optio

LEGIO X FRETENSIS AT MASADA PUTTING AN END TO RESISTANCE • During the first Jewish Revolt (AD 66-70), dissident factions broke away from the ‘main’ Jewish rebels. The so-called Zealots and Sicarii had seized several fortresses built by Herod the Great, especially the Herodion (or Herodium), Machaerus, on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, and Masada. Legio X Freten- sis was front and centre in the final storming of these fortresses and in bringing the last traces of rebellion to an end.

A stratagem at Machaerus

The march to Masada

Herod's house

LEGIO X AT AMIDA, AD 359 FRETENSIS OR FORTENSES • IN HIS BREATHTAKING EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE SIEGE OF AMIDA IN AD 359, THE HISTORIAN AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS INCLUDES DETAILS OF THE TROOPS TRAPPED INSIDE THE CITY (MODERN DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY). THE MOST PECULIAR DETAIL HE INCLUDES IS THAT, AMONG THE SEVEN LEGIONS TRAPPED INSIDE WHEN THE SIEGE...